Dignity News

* Dignity International for the People of Egypt

* Leadership Institute in Women’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

Phase-1: January 23 rd to 29 th, 2011, New Delhi

* Friendly Futsal Game: Dignity vs Pusat Komas

* New Volunteers of Dignity International

* Welcome New Dignity Team Member

* Support for Youth and War Victims

Other News

* The Egyptian Revolution: Mass Labour Uprising

* Human rights at the Heart of Political Change in Tunisia

* Land-grabbing takes centre stage at WSF Dakar

* NIGERIA: Women and Housing Rights Initiatives

Action Appeals

* Tax Global Finance

* PHILIPPINES: Dole Must Respect Labour Rights!

Announcements

* Call for Participation for the Peoples Summit for Sustainable Development - Rio+20

* Human Right to Education Internship

Events

* Panel: Women's ESCR in Kenya under the New Constitution

* 4th Annual Training on Monitoring Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

* OHCHR Meetings and Events

Publications

* OHCHR-UNDP ESC Rights Compilation for Latin America

* Kuala Lumpur Guidelines for a Human Rights Approach to Economic Policy in Agriculture

* Social Watch Report 2010: After the Fall

Endorsements

*Dignity International endorses the Joint Civil Society Statement on the Draft Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights

DIGNITY NEWS

 

*** Dignity International for the People of Egypt - The liberation movement to free Egypt from the tyranny of years of neglect and oppression of human rights has been a new dawn for the people of Egypt. Dignity International and its partners all over the world, salutes the common men and women for your courage, determination and believe that you are endowed with human rights. No government should ever stand in your way to have a nation that stands on the pillar of human rights, respect and dignity. You have done it and you have inspired all of us.

Congratulations Egypt!

Braving through 18-days of peaceful demonstration in the face of violence and terror, your victory has reflected People’s power and that Egyptians have the right to choose their future.

We would also like to applaud the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces for issuing communiqués to provide support and protect the revolution (1st Communiqué), and for affirming that it is “not a replacement for the legitimacy that is acceptable to the people” (3rd Communiqué). We express our appreciation on the important and massive responsibilities placed upon the armed forces during the critical period. We call upon the speedy return of power to a civilian government that would then transform Egypt into a beacon of hope for Africa and the Middle East.

We hope the resignation of Hosni Mubarak marks the beginning of Egypt’s transition from decades of dictatorship, and towards democracy for the people of Egypt. Egypt needs a government that respects human rights and establishes the rule of law.

We stand with you in this period of transition and will work with you in reclaiming Egypt into a transparent, accountable and credible democratic nation once again.

*** Leadership Institute in Women’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Phase-1: January 23 rd to 29 th, 2011, New Delhi - The 1st regional/international workshop for women’s economic, social cultural rights was successfully completed by PWESCR (Programme on Women’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights) a regional NGO based in India. Dignity International was invited to partner with them in the conduct of this training as the core faculty member.

 

25 Participants from 11 countries participated in the 8 day workshop that focused on four main areas:

• Social Construct of Gender – Feminist Analysis
• Analysis of Poverty
• Human Rights Framework
• ESCR Framework – ICESCR

It was an interactive workshop with very active and focused participants that stayed on in the workshop past 7pm daily.

 

Participants actively engaging in the workshop

 

Jerald Joseph, Executive Director of Dignity International, was a key trainer in this workshop in sharing the Human Rights Based Approaches to development as well as showcasing the popular education methodology that goes with the learning process.

 

Participants in group discussion facilitated by Jerald Joseph,
Executive Director of Dignity International

 

The programme continues with another workshop in phase 2 in Nepal, in June 2011. Meanwhile, all participants are tasked to complete an action plan on women’s economic social cultural rights in their own countries.

 

 

*** Friendly Futsal Game: Dignity vs Pusat Komas - A friendly futsal match with our Malaysian partners, KOMAS/PERMAS, was held on 6th of January 2011. In high spirits, the game was fun and exciting.

Action in the court

 

After the one-hour match, both teams reigned as perspiring winners with an 11-11 score, and adjourned to a nearby eatery outlet for dinner. It was definitely a healthy start to the year 2011, and a fantastic bonding session between Dignity International and KOMAS/PERMAS!

 

Relaxing after the game with KOMAS/PERMAS

 

*** New Volunteers of Dignity International – We would like to welcome onboard our new volunteers, Martha (Spanish translator) and Eric Ngang (West Africa Region)

 

Martha

Eric

 

 

*** Welcome New Dignity Team Member – Dignity International is very pleased to welcome the following new team member as our Office & IT Administrator.  Welcome to the Dignity Family!

 

Sasha Leong ( Malaysia)

 

 

DIGNITY PARTNER STORIES OF HUMAN RIGHTS & DEVELOPMENT

 

 

 

*** Support for Youth and War Victims - African Youth Initiative Network (AYINET) is a national youth organisation in Uganda working to promote peace and justice.

AYINET has programs which consist of identifying, treating and enabling the rehabilitation of victims of serious violations of international human rights law (IHR) and grave violations of international humanitarian law (IHL), who have been physically maimed and or mentally harmed as a result of the violations. In particular, the programme has been identifying victims.

 

Providing health and psychosocial support to victims of serious violation

Since 2005, we conducted this with the principal goal of improving the health, living conditions and human rights of the patients who are victims of serious violations from the war. We have assisted and seen hundreds of victims of the most severe violations re-establish their functionality and gain a new, more hopeful perspective on life. We have sought out, identified and ensured the care of mutilated victims whose faces and bodies were disfigured, former war captives and survivors of massacres and attacks that had grave wounds from bullets and shrapnel, victims severely burned during attacks, and people subjected to extreme forms of sexual violence. In addition to providing them with reconstructive surgeries, rehabilitation and mental health care, at AYINET we play a role in helping displaced families resettle, assist in child education, and aid in rebuilding their lives. To date, we have assisted in providing intensive medical care to approximately 400 victims with serious physical injuries that requires reconstructive plastic surgeries and hundreds with mental psychological torture and requires mental therapies.

 

We have seen practical human rights and human dignity. Seeing people who have been through horrific experiences walk free from pain and stigma is the greatest reward we can ever receive in our work.

 

Restored functionality of victims

 

Conducting youth leadership development programmes and mobilising
youth and community participation in peace and development

We have special programmes designed to help bright, resilient young people from extremely challenging backgrounds develop into compassionate, innovative problem-solvers and change agents. We initiated the poultry projects, crop production, goat raring and microcredit schemes for orphans from child headed families and widows. We conduct human rights and peace training programs for the youth and public institutions. These initiatives will guide them to become leaders in their communities, who work to affect significant social change and inspire their peers and generations to follow.

 

In an effort to raise the global awareness about the state of victims of war who faces serious human rights violations, AYINET together with No Peace Without Justice and Uganda Victims Foundation organised the War Victims Day Football in Kampala, Uganda. We invited Uganda’s president Yoweri Museveni, and the United Nations Secretary general Ban Ki-Moon, together with the State Delegates of the ICC from around the world, who came and played alongside the victims we mobilised from Uganda, Darfur, Congo, Liberia.

 

War victims from various countries form the Dignity FC
and Justice FC

 

President Museveni and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon

 

Source: AYINET

 

 

*** The Egyptian Revolution: Mass Labour Uprising - Egypt is currently witnessing unprecedented labour and professional unrest in parallel to the popular uprising which has swept through the country since 25 January.

One face of protests on 15 February was state media organisation protests. Around a kilometre away from Tahrir Square, some 500 employees protested outside the headquarters of the state-owned Rose al-Youssef newspaper and magazine. Protesters denounced the operational and editorial policies of their editor-in-chief Abdallah Kamal and administrative chief Karam Gaber, both of whom have waged pro-regime and anti-uprising coverage.

Another protest involving around 200 journalists was staged outside the Journalists' Syndicate in downtown Cairo, where protesters demanded the recall of the syndicate's president Makram Mohamed Ahmed, a member of the ruling National Democratic Party and vehement advocate of Mubarak.

Meanwhile at the headquarters of state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper, Egypt's largest daily, around 500 print-shop employees protested demanding full-time contracts, benefits and bonuses. They continued their protest on Wednesday.

Employee protests also spread around the country. An estimated 5000 employees of the state-owned telecommunications giant, Telecom Egypt, staged protest stands in three different locations across the city--the Smart Village, Ramses Square, and Opera Square. Shady Malek, an engineer with the company said, "We protested today for the establishment of an adequate minimum wage and maximum wage for our company's employees and administrators." To read more CLICK HERE>>>

Source: Al Masry–Al Youm English Edition

*** Human Rights at the Heart of Political Change in Tunisia - “Governments must listen to their people and put in practise their human rights obligations. Regimes that deprive people of their fundamental rights, that depend on a ruthless security apparatus to impose their will, are bound to fail in the long-term. Stability depends on the development of human rights and democracy,” the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, said Friday, 4 February 2011, at a press conference concerning events in Tunisia and Egypt.

“Waiting until unrest actually happens is, as we have seen in Tunisia… not only perpetuating systems that to a greater or lesser degree transgress internal national laws and standards, it is also a classic case of acting too little too late.”

“Human rights are at the heart of the political change that has happened in Tunisia,” she said. “In Tunisia, people expressed loudly and clearly their appetite for a genuine break with the past and for a new era in their country.”

Referring to her team of high-level experts who had just returned from a fact finding mission in Tunisia, she said that the information they received confirmed how integral human rights will be for the construction of the future of the country.

Pillay said that she was particularly moved by the words of a man whose 28-year old son had died in Tunisia from a gun shot wound to the chest, as he gathered with other young men to protect their neighbourhood from armed militias. Speaking of his son’s death, the man had told her team,“there must be sacrifices, for there to be change.”

Source OHCHR

*** Land-grabbing Takes Centre Stage at WSF Dakar - Undoubtedly, land grabbing was one of the main axis of mobilisation during the last WSF. Various social movements, faith-based groups, development and human rights organisations organised a series of events revolving on this issue. One of the most relevant was jointly convened by the West African Network of Peasants and Agricultural Producers (ROPPA) and La Via Campesina with the support of FIAN at the Agricultural Faire FIARA focusing particularly on strategies for action. Djibo Bagna, ROPPA's chairperson, highlighted in his opening speech the importance of awareness raising and alerting not only ROPPA’s members about the serious impacts of land grabbing, but the society at large due to the threat that this development poses to all. He called for joint actions at all levels and different fields, including information, research, media work and bringing the cases to court. Moreover, affected peasants by different forms of land grabbing from Mozambique, Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia told the audience about the human rights abuses they have been facing due to the activities of national and multinational companies. To read more CLICK HERE>>>

Source: FIAN

*** NIGERIA: Women and Housing Rights Initiatives - Women’s rights NGOs and other stakeholders recently held an all-day strategic forum in Abuja, Nigeria that ended with an agreement to implement an action plan that aims to promote women’s access to land and housing as well as other property and inheritance rights. The hope is that such a plan will spur economic development and boost women’s poverty reduction efforts in Nigeria.

More than 15 delegates from women’s rights NGOs in Enugu, Port Harcourt, Lagos and Abuja, as well as representatives of government ministries, met in Abuja on 29 November for the forum organised by the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), in collaboration with Women’s Aid Collective (WACOL), an Enugu-based women’s rights NGO.

The forum was dominated by talks about critical issues of women land and housing rights, inheritance rights, security of tenure, and existing legal and policy frameworks for promoting equality between men and women with respect to access to land and housing.

The recommendations made at the end of the forum plot measures to address the various areas of inconsistencies, gaps and challenges faced by women in Nigeria. To read more, CLICK HERE>>>

Source: COHRE

*** Tax Global Finance – Do you want to implement a Financial Transaction Tax in 2011 that will help regulate financial markets and raise revenue for global and domestic public goods such as health, education and water, and to tackle the challenge of climate change? If so, join the worldwide campaign for higher taxes on finance sector targets recently proposed to British, French and German finance ministers. As finance ministers from the G20 nations prepare to gather in Paris this month, supporters in 25 countries backing a financial transactions tax held a global day of action on 17 February to increase pressure on governments.

You can take action! CLICK HERE>>> The Global FTT E-Petition is ready for you!

Source: Make Finance Work

*** PHILIPPINES: Dole Must Respect Labour Rights! - Since 2006, the company has been trying to weaken, if not eliminate altogether, the democratically-elected union in Dole Philippines - the Amado Kadena–National Federation of Labour Unions–Kilusang Mayo Uno (AK-NAFLU-KMU). Since 2006, the company has conducted a vilification campaign against the union to quash the legitimate workers’ demands for higher wages, job security and trade union rights. With support from the company, the Philippine military has been conducting anti-union seminars, accusing AK-NAFLU-KMU of being a communist front and urging the union members to withdraw support from KMU. The Armed Forces of the Philippines' (AFP) 27th Infantry Battalion conducted a door-to-door campaign calling for disaffiliation from KMU. Union officers and active members are publicly accused as being "enemies of the state” – a very serious accusation amidst the extra-judicial killings in the country. The Dole management also supported the creation of a new union called UR Dole and on Feb 13, 2007, it conducted a bogus general election and "impeached" the legitimate union officials in a viva voce manner. The management refused to implement two orders from the Department of Labour and Employment ordering a status quo and nullifying the assembly and the "impeachment". It continued to recognise UR Dole and even released union dues to them in a clear effort to cripple the operations of AK-NAFLU-KMU. Several workers have also been fired, suspended, demoted or transferred as a result of their support for AK-NAFLU-KMU. Union president Jose Teruel and other officials have received death threats. Active union members are slapped with fabricated charges or subjected to overly-strict discipline; are threatened with non-renewal of their relatives’ contracts in the labour cooperative; and are being offered early retirement packages in another bid to cut back the union membership. To take action CLICK HERE>>>

Source: LabourStart

*** Call for Participation for the Peoples Summit for Sustainable Development - Rio+20 - The Brazilian Civil Society Facilitating Committee for Rio+20, which congregates different networks and non-governmental organisations and Brazilian social movements from different areas, including environmentalists, rural and urban workers, women, youth, popular movements, entrepreneurs of solidarity economy, among others, calls civil society organisations and social and popular movements from all across the world to join the process that will lead to the autonomous and plural event, the Peoples Summit for Sustainable Development – Rio+20, in May 2012, which will take place together with the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD 2012), also called Rio+20. To read more, CLICK HERE>>>

Source: Choike

*** Human Right to Education Internship - The Human Right to Education Program at the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative (NESRI) (NY, USA) works in partnership with parent, youth and teacher organisations to promote policy change in US public schools using human rights documentation, policy analysis and joint advocacy. NESRI believes that human rights offer a framework for transforming our schools based on internationally recognised standards of equity, accountability, dignity and community participation.

The Dignity in Schools Campaign:

The Dignity in Schools Campaign (DSC) challenges the systemic problem of pushout in our nation's schools and advocates for the human right of every child to a quality education and to be treated with dignity. The DSC unites parents, youth, educators and advocates in a campaign to promote local and national alternatives to a culture of zero-tolerance, punishment and removal. The DSC website includes a searchable database of research on pushout, school discipline, and positive alternatives, specific resources for youth, parents and educators, and information about our active campaign projects.

About This Internship Opportunity:

Intern responsibilities may include: 1) Research and writing to prepare fact sheets and other resources for the Campaign. 2) Outreach to parent, youth and teacher organisations around the country to expand membership of the DSC and increase participation in campaign meetings and events; 3) Filming interviews of DSC members for the online School Pushout Storybank. This is an unpaid internship. To learn more about this internship and apply, please CLICK HERE>>>

Source: NESRI

*** Panel: Women's ESCR in Kenya under the New Constitution - March 2nd, 2011 - FIDA Kenya and ESCR-Net will be organising a two part discussion on strategies for advocacy and litigation on women's ESCR under Kenya's new Constitution, which enshrines economic, social and cultural rights. To read more CLICK HERE>>>

Source: ESCR-Net

*** 4th Annual Training on Monitoring Economic, Social and Cultural Rights - 9-13 May 2011: Advanced Training Course on Monitoring Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, The Project on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Geneva, Switzerland.

The Project on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights organizes annually professional training courses on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The Project has extensive experience in organising two types of training aimed at providing professionals with tailored knowledge on the protection of ESC rights according to their level of experience. The “Training Course on Understanding Economic, Social and Cultural Rights” is designed to introduce participants to ESC rights, while the “Advanced Training Course on Monitoring Economic, Social and Cultural Rights” is aimed at providing more practical tools to advanced professionals in this area. To read more about this training and find additional registration information, please CLICK HERE>>>

Source: Equalinrights

*** OHCHR Meetings and Events –

*** OHCHR-UNDP ESC Rights Compilation for Latin America - A compilation of CESCR concluding observations for Latin American and Caribbean countries in their original languages. Contains all of the concluding observations of the Committee from 1989 to 2004 relating to Spanish-speaking countries in Spanish, English-speaking countries (as well as Brazil) in English, and Francophone countries in French. To download a free copy and/or acquire additional information, CLICK HERE>>>

Source: OHCHR

*** Kuala Lumpur Guidelines for a Human Rights Approach to Economic Policy in Agriculture - In the context of an unparalleled convergence of food, energy, climate, financial, ecological and economic crises, a group of human rights advocates of various fields of expertise from every region of the global South came together in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to develop the Kuala Lumpur Guidelines for a Human Rights Approach to Economic Policy in Agriculture. This Overview provides a brief account of the objectives, context and content of the Guidelines. To read more and download a free copy of these guidelines, CLICK HERE>>>

Source: ESCR-Net

*** Social Watch Report 2010: After the Fall - The reality of poverty and inequities, as perceived from communities and grassroots is different from the top-down views. The contributions of citizen groups from over 60 countries for the Social Watch Report 2010 entitled "After the Fall. Time for a New Deal" show that we are a long way from attaining the Millennium Development Goals. Further, Social Watch research shows that poverty reduction has globally slowed down since 2000. It concludes that a comprehensive redefinition of our approach to development is needed. To read more and access a fee copy of this report, CLICK HERE>>>

Source: Social Watch

***Dignity International endorses the Joint Civil Society Statement on the Draft Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

CLICK HERE>>> to view the statement and endorsements from organisations worldwide.

***

This is a monthly electronic news bulletin of 'Dignity International: All Human Rights for All'. Dignity International does not accredit, validate or substantiate any information posted by members to this news bulletin. The validity and accuracy of any information is the responsibility of the originator.

If you are working in the area of human rights with a special attention to different aspects of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, we would love to hear from you. To contribute, email us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it